


The Morning Clear

by Kalcifer



Series: FatT Sapphic Week 2020 [6]
Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26417605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: Natalya upgrades Tea's speakers, and Tea wants to test them out.
Relationships: Natalya Greaves/Tea Kenridge
Series: FatT Sapphic Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1920205
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	The Morning Clear

**Author's Note:**

> You can tell I've had to title six fics in a row because I'm using Florence and the Machine lyrics now. I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow.

The apartment door creaked open, and Natalya froze, looking for someplace to hide her spray bottle and sponge. She didn’t manage it in the split second before Tea came in. 

“Hey, I’m back!” Tea called. She took in the smell of cleaner in the air, Natalya’s panicked expression, and shook her head. “Okay, I know I’m not the most organized person, but you really didn’t have to go this far.”

Natalya smiled sheepishly. The truth was, she didn’t care that much about the state of her living space either. It was just that she could still feel the hum in her bones, sometimes. When Tea was around, she could focus on her, the natural sounds of life breaking up the monotonous droning. But Tea was doing important things with the Vanguard, and Natalya wasn’t so selfish as to ask that she leave that behind, even if Tea wouldn’t have gone insane from being trapped inside for that long.

Theoretically, Natalya could have gotten a job herself, but. Well. You didn’t have to have studied Divines with the Evening to see the most likely result of that.

Dumping all that on Tea as soon as she got home would have been rude, though, so Natalya just said, “You’re letting me stay in your house with no notice and no idea how long I’ll be here, this is quite literally the least I could do.”

“Okay, first off, I’ve had roommates before, and this is definitely not the least you can do,” Tea said. “And even if it were, I invited you to stay because I like having you around. I don’t need you to try to justify yourself.”

And that was just unfair, especially when Natalya was putting all of her energy into not scrubbing the wall until her fingers bled. She took three tries to think of a response that wasn’t “I love you.” “That works out, then, because I like being around,” she said, which was only slightly less blatant.

Tea gave a crooked smile. “You see? It’s a win-win.”

“It’s about time we got one of those,” Natalya muttered.

Tea looked troubled for a moment before her attention snapped to something behind Natalya. “Did you… What happened to my speakers?”

Natalya followed her gaze to a stereo system that seemed to have exploded. It was a victim of the first wave of impulse, before she hit the point where working on electronics was too painful. “Ah. I thought of a way to improve the audio quality, but after I upgraded it, it wouldn’t fit back in its case. I’m sorry, I should have fixed it before you got back, let me do that now.”

“Wait, if you actually upgraded it, I definitely want to check it out.” Tea was already headed for the docking port, phone in hand. Natalya set down her cleaning supplies to trail nervously after her.

Natalya was expecting her to play something loud and bass-heavy, something that would really test the speakers’ range, but instead Tea chose something light and upbeat. The song had barely started before Tea nodded. “Yeah, that’s definitely better.”

“Of course it is,” Natalya said. If there was one good side effect of being enslaved by the robot embodiment of overwork, it was the ideas it brought. Even if they only came because you couldn’t stop thinking about how you could be productive in this moment.

“Wow, boastful much?” Tea said, like she didn’t love regaling Natalya with stories of her latest triumphs. “All right, then, why don’t we put it to good use. Dance with me.”

Natalya blinked. “I… I don’t actually know how to dance.” She’d never had to do that kind of infiltration.

“Neither do I. You just have to wing it. Do what feels right.” Tea watched Natalya expectantly.

Natalya felt incredibly silly, but she couldn’t disappoint Tea, even in something as trivial as this. She stepped to the side, then back, waving her arms through the air.

Tea had the decency not to laugh at her, but the amusement was clear in her voice when she said, “No, wait, don’t do that.”

“I told you.” Natalya could feel color rising to her cheeks.

“Fine, then. Follow my lead.” Tea stepped forward and took Natalya’s hand in hers, putting her other arm around her wait. Natalya was suddenly glad she’d already been blushing, because there was no way she could have stayed collected through this.

She forced herself to focus on the mechanics of the dance, following Tea’s footsteps and not the feeling of her hand in hers. After a few seconds, she looked up, her need to complain outweighing the intoxicating closeness of Tea’s face. “We’re just going back and forth, this is exactly what I was doing.”

“But now I can do this.” Tea brought her hand up over Natalya’s head, spinning her.

Given that Natalya hadn’t been in the steadiest place to begin with, the sudden motion nearly toppled her. It was only Tea catching her that kept her from falling. 

Natalya felt like she’d never get her legs back under her. Not with Tea pressed against her like this, supporting her with no signs of strain. And why should she bother moving when she was where she’d wanted to be for so long?

The answer, of course, was that wanting to be here was exactly why she couldn’t be. Tea had already done so much for her. She couldn’t ask for more.

She got to her feet and smiled shakily. “I was right yet again.”

“I think you sabotaged us, that doesn’t count.” Tea shook her head. “I guess we’ll just have to keep trying it until we get it right.”

“Oh,” Natalya said. “Um. Okay, sure. I don’t have anything better to do.”

“Great.” Tea smiled with all her teeth. “Let’s go.”

Natalya stepped closer to Tea, her mind firmly on the music to keep it from wandering. She thought this song would be engraved in her brain by the time the day was over.

Maybe it would even be loud enough to drown out the hum.


End file.
